Title and Registration
by somethingcoolmusic
Summary: Post "Nag Hammadi"...Jess in his car after he drove off.


"Title and Registration"  
  
By: Sirius  
  
Jess had made it to the highway before the magnitude of what he'd done actually set in. His breath caught in his throat and he struggled to hold on to a single train of thought. Images and memories flooded his mind as he pulled off the road and into the narrow space between the lanes and the cement barriers. Her face swam behind his eyes, blocking out everything coherent. He'd remember her expression for the rest of his life: a mix of shock, hurt, and deep thought.  
  
He had expertly avoided her for the entire weekend and just as he was leaving, of course he had to run into her again. Just one more time. All it took was seeing her one more time for him to completely lose his strength. As he'd chased after her down the street like an idiot, all he could think about was the phone call he'd made to her on the day of her graduation. It as time for him to say those words back to her.  
  
He'd called after her as she zigzagged through town. She'd finally come to a halting stop when he pleaded with her. After she'd ranted on about what he'd done to her and how she'd imagined this moment would be, she finally just asked him to get it over with.  
  
He'd stared at her for a moment, taking in every inch of her face and weighing the decision in his mind. He needed to tell her. Like it or not, she deserved to know.  
  
"I love you."  
  
His memory of the scene just hours before had been so vivid that Jess didn't realize he'd said it out loud again as he sat in his car. Quietly, almost hesitantly, droplets of rain fell onto the hood and windshield of his car. The dull pounding echoed around him as he leaned his seat back. He stretched his legs out and prepared for a long night in his car. He would need all the money he could save for gas for his trip back to California; back to his new life. His eyelids slowly closed as he calculated the miles and gallons.  
  
He must have fallen asleep to the rhythmic noise of rain and passing cars because he was soon being rudely awakened by the sound of clinking of metal on glass. While his eyes adjusted to being awake, eh was alarmed by a bright light. As it turns out, it was a flashlight held in the hand of a sheriff. The officer outside motioned for him to lower the window and Jess obliged.  
  
"Everything okay out here, son?"  
  
"Yeah, everything's peachy, officer."  
  
"Can I see your license, then?"  
  
Jess sighed and leaned over to the passenger seat to get to the glove compartment. He'd stashed his wallet in there when he'd got in the car. The latch popped and the door flew downward. A pile of papers fell out of the compartment and he grabbed for what looked like his wallet. He flipped the tri-fold open and held it out to the officer, who scanned it with his flashlight. After blinding him once again to ensure that the picture was indeed of Jess, the man handed it back to him.  
  
"What are you doing on the side of the road at three o'clock in the morning?"  
  
"Don't have money for a hotel, so I'm crashing in the car."  
  
"Why don't you let me take you back to the station?"  
  
"No thanks officer, I'm planning on getting an early start to begin with."  
  
"Alright then, be careful son."  
  
Without responding, Jess manually rolled his window back up and watched as the sheriff ambled back to his patrol car.  
  
"Jesus," Jess mumbled as he folded his walled back together. "Can't a guy sleep in his car without being harassed by a cop?"  
  
He leaned over once again to pick up the spilled contents of his glove compartment. As he weeded through it, he came across a picture with its back turned to him. He recognized the Kodak markings on the back and turned the photo over slowly. It was he and Rory in the diner. She was on a stool sipping coffee and he was leaning over the counter, smiling genuinely at her. They'd been discussing various ways to sabotage Kirk's T-shirt selling business. Luke had taken the picture without their knowledge. Jess had found it later on that night stuck to the fridge with the Chinese take- out magnet. He'd taken it and kept it in his car ever since.  
  
As he sifted through the rest of the papers, he found his Distillers ticket stub along with the bidding card with which he'd won the picnic with Rory. Sighing, he shoved everything back into the glove compartment and slammed it close. All but the picture. He stared at it nostalgically for a few minutes before clipping it under the mirror of the sun visor. He leaned back once again and struggled to get comfortable in his driver's seat, while thoughts of her dominated his brain. He knew he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. 


End file.
